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Last update - 19:30 14/10/2008
Rice pledges to pursue Israel-PA peace until she leaves office
By Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz U.S. Correspondent and Reuters
Tags: Peace, Palestinians 

United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday she would leave "no stone unturned" to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal before leaving office but conceded time was running out.

Speaking to a U.S. conference on business investment in Palestinian areas, Rice said she still hoped to reach the Bush administration's goal of a peace deal by the end of 2008 that was set at a conference in Annapolis nearly a year ago.

"I still believe that we must make every effort in the time that we have to lay this foundation for peace, and that still means that we must do everything that we can... to find an agreement between these parties by the end of the year," Rice said.
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"Know too that until that moment when I leave office, I will leave no stone unturned to see if we can finally resolve this conflict," Rice said.

The Bush administration's term ends in January 2009.

"It is very difficult, there is a hard road ahead, but if we do not try, we certainly will not succeed," she said, adding she was sure negotiations would ultimately lead to a Palestinian state.

Rice has made multiple trips to the Middle East to get a peace agreement. But U.S.-sponsored negotiations have made little progress, and Israeli and Palestinian officials have expressed doubt whether the year-end target is realistic.

An additional problem has been political upheaval in Israel, where Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is trying to form a new government after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resigned over a series of corruption scandals.

Rice said the parties should also "redouble their efforts" for peace. The Palestinian Authority must continue to dismantle "the infrastructure of terrorism" while Israel must halt settlement activity and do more to lift restrictions on movement of Palestinian workers and business people, she said.

She also spoke of the efforts to secure donations toward Palestinian state-building.

"I've urged other members of the international community to be as generous as the American people to support Palestinians, it's a sign of the confidence U.S. government has in Palestinian Authority as much of this money was directly to the Authority," Rice said.


But the secretary of state did not get into details of the talks. Major issues are the borders of a future Palestinian state, the status of Jerusalem and what will happen to Palestinian refugees.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack insisted to reporters after Rice's speech there had been "quite a bit of progress" and the fact this progress was kept quiet was an indication of their seriousness in trying to reach a deal.

The gathering of U.S. business leaders at the Chamber of Commerce headquarters was a follow-up to a Bethlehem conference last May at which private investors pledged to pump $1.4 billion into Palestinian businesses to bolster the economy.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said most investment so far had gone into the West Bank "but we look forward to the day when we will be able to do this in Gaza, for Gaza is, and will always be an integral part of our homeland."

Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas' PA is has varying degrees of control over the West Bank's 2.5 million Palestinians. Fatah's Hamas rivals have controlled the Gaza Strip and its 1.5 million Palestinians since routing Abbas' forces in 2007.

Fayyad said the business investment effort was aimed at preparing for a Palestinian state. "This is not about making the occupation work better. This is about ending it," he said.


Related articles:
  • Fayyad: World support for peace is meaningless unless Israel halts settlement expansion
  • Rice: Settlement construction has 'negative effect' on talks
  • Rice: Israeli-PA talks on right track, peace deal possible in 2009
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      1.   Bye Bye, Condi! 19:32  |  Yaakov K. 14/10/08
      2.   "..I will leave no stone unturned..." 19:38  |  Swiss (Dino) 14/10/08
      3.   Rice and the peace process 19:49  |  Michael 14/10/08
      4.   To Michael@3 20:53  |  ProcessEngineer 14/10/08
      5.   Give it a rest, Condi and other Bushies. 21:02  |  Leeza Cohen Coleman 14/10/08
      6.   Rice pledges 21:27  |  alan 14/10/08
      7.   Condi, hope you succeed where so many 21:33  |  Sarah 14/10/08
      8.   condi gets the guinness book of records 21:47  |  v.hardman 14/10/08
      9.   Hasn`t Condaleezza Right anyhing better to do? 22:42  |  Dagma 14/10/08
      10.   pursuit til the last drop of our blood! 22:42  |  Arie 14/10/08
      11.   Sleeping at the helm 23:30  |  Baz Mann 14/10/08
      12.   #2, How would you know ,Dino ? 00:20  |  Gary 15/10/08
      13.   Big News for Baz Mann 00:42  |  Leeza Cohen Coleman 15/10/08
      14.   Rice and Jihadism 01:08  |  Brod 15/10/08
      15.   Start by taking hatred and incitement out of US paid PA textbooks 13:28  |  Leah 15/10/08
      16.   #8,#14 are so correct ! 16:12  |  Gary 15/10/08
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